Milan Kundera, ‘The Unbearable Lightness Of Being’ author, dies aged 94
The Unbearable Lightness Of Being author Milan Kundera has died aged 94 in Paris. His passing comes following a long illness.
The acclaimed novel, released in 1984, is set in Prague and explores the Soviet Union’s invasion of Czechoslovakia from the perspective of two women, two men, and a dog. Kundera was born in Czechoslovakia but moved to France in 1975 and was later stripped of his Czechoslovak citizenship in 1979 before becoming a French citizen in 1981.
After leaving his homeland, the writer rarely returned and made Paris his headquarters. Kundera’s final novel was 2014’s The Festival of Insignificance, which is set in the French capital. In total, he penned eight books throughout his literary career.
“Milan Kundera died yesterday in Paris after a long illness,” Jindra Pavelková, a representative of the Moravian Library, the Czech library housing his personal collection, confirmed in a statement to Variety.
Looking back on his life in 1980, Kundera told the New York Times: “If someone had told me as a boy: One day you will see your nation vanish from the world, I would have considered it nonsense, something I couldn’t possibly imagine. A man knows he is mortal, but he takes it for granted that his nation possesses a kind of eternal life.”
The Unbearable Lightness Of Being was turned into a film in 1988, starring Daniel Day-Lewis. The motion picture was directed by Andy Kaufman. For the role, Day-Lewis learnt how to speak Czech despite the script being written in English. However, he wasn’t satisfied with his efforts because he thought he failed to “become” Czech.
“The idea of speaking English with a Czech accent without actually speaking Czech meant it wasn’t coming from anywhere,” the actor later said to The Guardian in 2008. “I knew that that kernel of truth that I need to have somewhere in a role would be missing.”
Watch the trailer for the film below.
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